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Man. looking forward to running into a few of you. Might have to arrange some kind of pre-PAX meeting on the pub crawl or at shorty's or something, and show these yanks how to drink (or game, whatever )

given the number of attendees, I'm pretty sure we're still going to be an extreme minority.

That said, Australian's aren't all that rare in Seattle. Microsoft tends to hire a lot of us, particularly now that the E3 work visa is available, and has a quota of 10,000 a year. Means that they can easily hire us, since we don't have to fight H1-B visa quotas to get in.

Yeah i'll be going as a prelude to a backpacking trip around Canada and a bit of America. So yeah, i'm based in Brisbane and i'm going to avoid flying through LAX because i hear that it is a really bad airport.

LAX is pretty crap as far as airports go, but I think anything short of an airport policy of compulsory anal cavity searches wouldn't be enough to make me avoid a city entirely just because it had a bad airport.

I mean you're just going to get off your plane and collect your luggage and then you're out of there, aren't you?

LAX's bad rep is mainly because of it's layout. It seems that anyone passing through it has no choice but to go outside.

When I went through it on my way to SEA, (qantas/AA in, alaskan out), it was pretty crappy to have a 19 hour flight with no sleep (I couldn't get comfortable in cattle class, and since my flight had left early morning I wasn't tired anyway), then have to stand through customs for an hour or so, and then walk all the way around LAX in the september sun, since it seems to be made of a bunch of individual complexes connected by a road with a carpark in the middle.

It's almost enough to make me want to apply for a green card, just so I can take the short line at customs next time. Pity the waiting period for a greencard has almost reached 10 years.

I got into LAX and missed my connecting flight to Chicago due to a computer screw up in their immigration section. Luckily United let me change flights at no cost, but the only flight they could put me on wasn't for 9 hours.

I'm sure killing 9 hours in any airport is going to suck, especially on the back of a 17 hour trans-Pacific crossing but it's almost as if LAX goes out of it's way to make you as uncomfortable as possible to force you to "move along". Even the benches I found had curved seats so they're nearly impossible to lay on without your legs slipping off.

Probably the best advice i can give is that the flight will swap over to GMT-8 (LA time) when it leaves (at least, it did for me).

For instance, my flight left at around 9am melbourne time (or so). a few hours into the flight, (around 12 noon melbourne time) they served an evening meal (since that would have been 5pm or so in LA), then turned out the lights. They served breakfast shortly before landing (landed at 6am LA time or so, or roughly 2am melbourne time).

If you can wrap your body around the change in time, and sleep for most of the trip, do so. otherwise, be prepared for being awake well past "midnight".

Leaving on a later flight might make things easier (but let's face it, flights that leave in the arvo almost never exist... )

If you're like me and can't sleep through flights, the best thing I've found to do is don't stop moving until it's time to sleep wherever you're landing. In other words, get off the plane, check into your hotel and get situated, and start seeing the sights. Don't stop unless you're getting food and don't sleep until you normally would or slightly earlier. Get a good sleep that night and you'll not only be ready to go the next day, but a bit more familiar with your surroundings after walking around the day before.

If you're like me and can't sleep through flights, the best thing I've found to do is don't stop moving until it's time to sleep wherever you're landing. In other words, get off the plane, check into your hotel and get situated, and start seeing the sights. Don't stop unless you're getting food and don't sleep until you normally would or slightly earlier. Get a good sleep that night and you'll not only be ready to go the next day, but a bit more familiar with your surroundings after walking around the day before.

I can see myself falling asleep at the top of the space needle doing this.

If you're like me and can't sleep through flights, the best thing I've found to do is don't stop moving until it's time to sleep wherever you're landing. In other words, get off the plane, check into your hotel and get situated, and start seeing the sights. Don't stop unless you're getting food and don't sleep until you normally would or slightly earlier. Get a good sleep that night and you'll not only be ready to go the next day, but a bit more familiar with your surroundings after walking around the day before.

I can see myself falling asleep at the top of the space needle doing this.

Then don't sit down. You'll be exhausted by the end of the day, but that's what energy drinks are for, right?

If you're like me and can't sleep through flights, the best thing I've found to do is don't stop moving until it's time to sleep wherever you're landing. In other words, get off the plane, check into your hotel and get situated, and start seeing the sights. Don't stop unless you're getting food and don't sleep until you normally would or slightly earlier. Get a good sleep that night and you'll not only be ready to go the next day, but a bit more familiar with your surroundings after walking around the day before.

I can see myself falling asleep at the top of the space needle doing this.

Then don't sit down. You'll be exhausted by the end of the day, but that's what energy drinks are for, right?

I don't think it does, but I haven't had one since I got here so I'm not sure. But that said, Mountain Dew has caffeine. And there's Root beer. (Which doesn't deserve the name "beer". Or "root" for that matter, if you'll allow me to use some aussie slang of a colourful nature )

The only root beer in the United States that has caffeine is Barq's and I guess the new Root Beer flavored Bawls, but that's more flavor than content.

Also, the name root beer comes from prohibition days, when real beer was illegal.

Sorry, didn't mean that root beer had caffeine. I was just mentioning that it exists, and its taste deserves neither the terms 'root' or 'beer', given the high accolades those two terms have in Australia

Fosters is what we sell you blokes. It's the dregs from the bottom of barrels of decent beer. No-one in Australia has it as their primary beer on tap. (at least, not in Melbourne).

It depends a lot on where you are in Australia, but you'll usually find one of Carlton Draught, Victoria Bitter, Tooheys, XXXX, or to a lesser extent, Coopers and Cascade. It depends a lot on the target market, and regional differences. (by no means an exhaustive list, mind you, we're a rich, diverse beer drinking nation)

That said, I've never seen fosters sold in large quantities in Australia. Ever. To see it on tap here in Seattle is hilarious.

An Aussie PAXer coming from Perth here! I'm doing a month-long trip to the US to visit a metric buttload of friends over there. So I'm going on August 2nd and leaving on Sept 2nd, will be going through San Fran, Houston, Chicago, Indianapolis and Milwaukee before hitting Seattle on the 27th. I have a room booked (will be looking for some sharers on the relevant thread) and am going to hit up any extra-curricular PAX activities I can (hopefully get into the Pre-PAX dinner and movie night too).

So yeah, I'd be up for hitting some pubs and showing Americans how to drink, also destroying them with Black Death (vegemite, man yanks really hate the stuff).

Also I have heard from respectable sources that local Seattle beers can be quite good, particularly the ales?

Actually, vegemite is made from a yeast extract which is a by-product of the beer brewing process -

Vegemite is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacture, and various vegetable and spice additives.

Only Australians could decide that something that is caused by making beer is worth not only eating but making one of our national icons (which is now owned by American company Kraft Foods - go team us!)

Actually, vegemite is made from a yeast extract which is a by-product of the beer brewing process -

Vegemite is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacture, and various vegetable and spice additives.

Only Australians could decide that something that is caused by making beer is worth not only eating but making one of our national icons (which is now owned by American company Kraft Foods - go team us!)

Be that as it may, I'm willing to bet that Kraft don't take the leftovers from CUB and use that, they'll be using perfectly good yeast and skipping the beer step, or something else similarly dastardly!

That said, you'll pry my Berrocca out of my cold dead hands! (smuggling it in past customs is entertaining.)

That said, the accent they have on the ads just makes me want to find whoever it is and figure out if they're really australian. It's got to be the weirdest sounding sydney-sider accent i've ever heard.

You're better off going to the KangarooAndKiwi pub. I wouldn't call the food great and it's a bit too far away from the city centre, really (actually, not too far from the steakhouse, i think). It's got a fairly heavy NZ bias to the decorations tho, since the owner is a new-zealander.

I'd just as soon go to a local-to-the-event bar, or join into the pub crawl or something.

That said, you'll pry my Berrocca out of my cold dead hands! (smuggling it in past customs is entertaining.)

THEY HAVE NO BEROCCA? What the hell man, what do they do for hangovers when you have to go to work Monday morning?

I'm going through planning my trip with my friends at the moment using GoogleDocs so I have a spreadsheet full of stuff my friends here and there think I should do while there. 90% appears to be eating something or eating at somewhere. I'm making a trip out of Houston to go see Real Life Comics Greg Dean for Texan BBQ. And apparently some friends in Houston are taking me to a shooting range to use a 'hand cannon'. Should I be afraid?

THEY HAVE NO BEROCCA? What the hell man, what do they do for hangovers when you have to go to work Monday morning?

They've got some things that are similar, but they aren't used as hangover cures (or at least, commonly known to BE hangover cures), but they're not as simple to carry around or as effective as Berrocca. Like I say, if you come, bring some, you won't be able to get it here. There are a few places that sneakily import it, but they can't bring much in, because the FDA gets narky, so they're usually out. (Also, even if you find Cadbury chocolate in a retail store, don't touch it, it's made by Hersheys under contract, and isn't as good as the real thing)

I'm going through planning my trip with my friends at the moment using GoogleDocs so I have a spreadsheet full of stuff my friends here and there think I should do while there. 90% appears to be eating something or eating at somewhere. I'm making a trip out of Houston to go see Real Life Comics Greg Dean for Texan BBQ. And apparently some friends in Houston are taking me to a shooting range to use a 'hand cannon'. Should I be afraid?

I haven't actually gone to a gun range yet, and I'm no-where near Texas (fortunately? ).

There's a barbeque place here near Bellevue that's pretty hard-core as well. Dixie's BBQ: here is the one I'm thinking of. If you can survive their chilli, you get to put a pin up on a map of the world. There's a *LOT* of pins up, even in Australia.

I've haved lunch there during a workday, so I haven't been game to try it, I'll have to do it on a weekend when I have some time to spare.

That said, the accent they have on the ads just makes me want to find whoever it is and figure out if they're really australian. It's got to be the weirdest sounding sydney-sider accent i've ever heard.

You're better off going to the KangarooAndKiwi pub. I wouldn't call the food great and it's a bit too far away from the city centre, really (actually, not too far from the steakhouse, i think). It's got a fairly heavy NZ bias to the decorations tho, since the owner is a new-zealander.

I'd just as soon go to a local-to-the-event bar, or join into the pub crawl or something.

No fucking way

If there's an Aussie meet up it has to be at Outback Steakhouse.

I went to the one in Vegas last time I was there and it was the funniest damn restaurant experience I've ever had. The menu is Hilarious - "Brisbane Ceaser Salad!" Not to mention the extra special attention we got for being Australians.

I'd just as soon go to a local-to-the-event bar, or join into the pub crawl or something.

No fucking way

If there's an Aussie meet up it has to be at Outback Steakhouse.

I went to the one in Vegas last time I was there and it was the funniest damn restaurant experience I've ever had. The menu is Hilarious - "Brisbane Ceaser Salad!" Not to mention the extra special attention we got for being Australians.

Hm, it would probably be entertaining, but I prefer South African steakhouses to Australian ones. Unless the Australian one is going to serve a massive chunk of Lamb. (Man, a decent rack of lamb would go down well right now, best I can get is a lamb shank or a few miniscule individual chops ATM )